


R U N A W A Y

by a_little_hope (orphan_account)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cute Kids, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Fluff, Jedi Training, Rey Kenobi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 09:49:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12981468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/a_little_hope
Summary: Ben Solo runs off into the woods after getting bullied at the Academy.There he meets a girl named Rey.





	R U N A W A Y

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Deathbyhook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathbyhook/gifts).



Ben Solo had always been easy to upset, but the easiest way to do so was to tease him about his appearance. It was foolish, to get in such a state over words, the boy knew. But at the same time that could never seem to stop the tears from flowing. 

Today had been a cruel one imparticular, and he was left with a bruise on his shin and an angry command. "You cannot tell anyone, if you do I will kill you."

He had been scared, and he had ran. 

He remembered Uncle Luke telling him never to run into the woods alone, after all he was only ten, but monsters that lurked in the shadows seemed less intimidating than the kids at the Academy. 

So he plunged into the darkness, his feet taking him as far as he could muster. 

When he stopped, he had forgotten where he was. The trees loomed tall over him, creating shadows that resembled gnarled hands, blocking out moonlight from getting through the trees. 

It seemed that he had made a grave miscalculation. He could hear animals growl and howl in the distance, looking for food. He would unmistakably be their next meal. Panic overtook the small child in that moment,  _there's nothing you can do except lay down and die._ A voice said. That voice. It had haunted him since birth. 

 _You disappoint me,_ it told him. 

Ben fell to his knees, sobbing. He wasn't sure when he had fell asleep, but he remembered everything turning to black, and the voice going away, giving him a reprieve from the constant onslaught of hate inside his head. 

When he woke up, it was morning. Someone tapped his shoulder. Ben jumped up, to see a girl recoil from him. 

She was a small creature, underfed, with three consecutive buns in her hair. She wore a tattered tan dress with wrappings on her arms. She reminded Ben of a fairy, a creature that he'd only seen in stories. She had to be eight at the most. 

Ben made a motion towards her, and she flinched. "Hey," he said. "Hey, I won't hurt you." Her eyes widened, "My name's Ben. Who are you?"

"Rey," her voice was so quiet, that he barely heard her. 

"Are you part of the Jedi academy? I've never seen you before,"

She shook her head no. 

"Good," Ben said. 

"You looked dead when I found you," Rey said. "You shouldn't sleep out here." 

"Yeah, I guess I shouldn't." Ben was glad that the girl hadn't seen him cry. A little less humilation to deal with. 

"Do you not have a place to sleep?" The girl asked inquisitively. Ben looked back in the direction of the Jedi Academy. 

"Not any more," he said. 

"I can show you where I sleep." She replied. The girl got up, dusting her hands off on her skirt. "It'll be fun, come on!" Rey grabbed Ben by the hair and started running passed large, uptorn roots, brambles and bushes. 

She moved so nimbly for such a small child. They stopped when they reached a large lake, a deep cerulean blue that stayed still in the icy temperatures. "Where are you going?" Ben asked when she started heading closer to the water. 

Then he saw it. The stepping stones. "Come on, silly!" She teased. 

He followed her, not having any place better to go. For once, he wasn't concerned with the voice in his head that fed him dark thoughts, or thoughts of the Jedi Academy.  He jumped on stepping stones with Rey, and when they reached the other side of the lake he was not disappointed. 

Rey walked up to a tree, cloaked in a veil of light, that was so delicate but so real looking, that Ben was sure it was real. He stepped passed it and walked up to the big tree with Rey. 

It was hollow, he realized. Of course it was. Within the tree, was four homemade blankets, a few books, and some food. It looked like she had stolen it from the Academy. 

He didn't question her about it. For all he was concerned, they all deserved it. 

"This is where I sleep!" She said. "If you want to sleep here too, you can." 

"You barely know anything about me though,"

Rey frowned, "Your name is Ben and you lost the place where you sleep. Isn't that enough?" 

Ben laughed forcibly, "I guess."

"Or is it that you want to know more about me?" She inquired. "Because I don't get to talk about myself to anyone ever and I would be glad to do it now if you wished."

She talked a lot. 

Ben kind of liked that. Rey had sat down amongst her blankets. Ben followed suit. 

"Tell me about yourself then," 

So the girl did. 

She told him everything. Everything from how her favorite color was green to how her parents left her here and she wandered into the woods away from them. Ben was the first person she'd talked to since they left. She told him how she'd found this place, and how every time she was scared the tree would wash away her negative thoughts. "It's magic." She said. 

 _Not magic_ , he thought.  _the force._

They talked into the late hours of the day, and Rey gave him a bread roll to munch on when they both got hungry. When she was tired, she yawned and said, "Ben?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you be my friend?"

* * *

 

The next day Ben had to go back. 

Rey cried, but he promised her that he would be back. "My parents promised that too!"

"I'm not your parents," he told her. Then he left. 

He would be back. 

He knew that in order to keep his sanity, he would have to come back. Luke had been worried sick. He had asked Ben where he went but Ben didn't answer. 

It only took three days before it happened again, and Ben was back at the tree. "Ben! You're back!" Rey had been waiting for him. She greeted him with a hug and they sat down on one of the tree roots together. "You're sad," she said disappointedly. 

"Yeah." He said. "It's not your fault though." 

"What's wrong?"

"I just... I'm lonely."

"I know what being lonely is like," she said. "It's not very fun." They stayed silent for a while and then Rey said, "Oh d'you know what would be fun?"

"What?" 

"Hide and seek." Her eyes are practically pleading. 

He says yes. 

They play hide and seek, which Ben finds out he's incredibly bad at. 

Rey was somewhere up in a crook in the tree and he looked for her for at least a good hour before she finally took pity on him and came down. She talked to him of wanting to go to different planets and explore and climb those trees as well, and Ben said that when he was old enough the both of them could go off together, just the two of them. 

"Promise?"

"Promise," He said. 

 _You shouldn't make promises you can't keep._ There was that voice again. This time he left without explanation. 

* * *

 For the next year, it was like this. 

He would come to her, frustrated. He would never talk about his actual problems, but let her do all the talking instead. He envied the childish innocence that she was able to maintain, despite the fact that she was all alone. 

Each day, the voice in his head cut into him. Telling him to forget the girl and come to him. 

He would only disappoint her after all. He was weak. 

After a while, he started to agree with the voice. 

He stopped seeing Rey. 

It was eight years in the Jedi Academy before he saw went to her tree again, and she wasn't there anymore. 

* * *

 

Now he was a monster.

Not concerned with the girl that he had run away to, but with matters of murder. Drowning planets in blood, and drowning himself of darkness. 

He cannot be redeemed. 

He's got no innocence left and no hope left. 

He is alone. 

"...accompanied by a girl," that sentence sticks out to him. 

"What girl?" He nearly kills Mitaka. 

The girl. 

Was it her? 

It was stupid to think but maybe, just maybe it was. He went to Takodana to see for himself. He could sense something of the old innocence and naivete, some sort of aura that she projected around her. 

He found her easily. 

She tried to kill him.  _It was the mask,_ he surmised. 

The girl was all grown, small and underfed, with three buns, wearing something similar to what she had back then. Where had she been? 

He couldn't think about that.

He was here for a reason. 

He took her in. 

* * *

 

 She looks at him and sees something familar. It disgusted her, looking down at such a pitiful creature and thinking that he reminded her of someone she knew. 

The ground broke apart. 

He tried to get up. 

Why would he try to get up? 

Rey watched him move, then lay back down in the snow. 

He could've sworn he said her name. 

* * *

Things were coming back to her. Slowly. She had dreams of a boy standing next to a tree, crying. "I don't understand why you have to go back." Another voice said. It was her own voice. "You said that all the other kids treat you badly."

"You don't understand!" His hand jutted out and she flew back into a tree. 

Rey woke up, remembering her surroundings. She was on Ach-To, outside Luke's hut. He still hadn't let her train. Rey knocked on Luke’s door again, in a last attempt to annoy him into training her.

She didn’t understand why he was so afraid of her, why he shut her out. She just wanted someone to tell her what to do, and where to go. He didn’t answer her.

* * *

 

She's crying and he doesn't know what to do. He's helpless. 

She's helpless. 

What was there to do? 

So he does the one thing that he can do, he reaches his hand out to her, trembling. 

She's scared at first. 

She recoils and it sends a pang of hurt through him, then he says, "I won't hurt you. Not ever again." And she relaxes. "Will you run away with me?" He asks. 

It's a shot in the dark, but just maybe ... 

He's so tired of being alone. He missed her. 

She takes his hand. "Yes," she says. 


End file.
